With robotic technology advancing rapidly, robots will be a large influence on our world today, making everyday tasks easier for us humans. As well as doing simple chores for us, robots will also provide interaction for people, especially the elderly. Further, these benefits of robots apply not only to humans, but also to animals, which is something many don’t realize. As such, BSGE’s Robotics Club, though not very well known, has an important role in the world.
The club works on programming robots to portray educational themes. They have completed several previous missions, which challened them to create differently functioning robots. According to Eric Karhan ’19, the leader of the club, they are currently preparing for the Lego league competition and will compete against several other schools. The theme of the competition is animal allies, and the Robotics Club chose bees as their animal, since the bee represents BSGE. Specifically, the club focused on beekeepers, people who take care of bees and keep them healthy. This shows an interaction between humans and animals having a positive impact on the animals. When bees sting the bee suits of beekeepers, it is very expensive to clean, and the suit is attractive to bees, which can hurt the beekeepers. Thus, the club’s goal is to use robots to create a cheaper and stronger alternative, preferably white instead of the yellow, since bees aren’t attracted to white.
The members of the club are working on this project by programming different robots in groups. Sidhartaa Venkatesh ’22 explained that one of the essential rules when programming and working with robots is that every time you touch a robot, you have to bring it back to its base. While working, the kids were learning how to work together as a group and interacted with each other to achieve a similar target. Mr. Heine, a supervisor of the club, said that he doesn’t know a lot about programming but likes seeing the kids make mistakes and overcame their challenges. Overall, he has fun supervising them. Ms. Stephanie Fowler, the other supervisor of the club, is also a parent of a current student at BSGE. She loves supporting the kids and watching them grow over the course of the year.
However, many BSGE students have little to no knowledge about this fascinating club. Several know it exists, including Artemis Christoforatos ’22 and and Sama Nada ’22, know it exists, but do’n’t know any details. Others such as Rummana Amrin ’17 know about it this year, but hadn’t heard of it in any previous ones. Reasons for this lack of knowledge are unclear, but could be because the club is very new or because people don’t tend to be interested in robotics.
The Robotics Club at ended up winning 3rd place in the project design of the first Lego League Qualifier and made it to the semifinals. Their hard work and dedication led them to this great achievement. Although the Robotics Club at BSGE just started out, it will most likely gain more popularity and the interest of more people throughout its future years at BSGE. The BSGE family wishes the best for the Robotics Club, and hopes for their great achievements and success to continue.
The BACC Rag 